Mistakes online students make

From an online instructor's perspective, what do you see as the top five mistakes online students make? Here are mine:

1. Students should log in to their classes well before the start date. Most schools open online classes 3-5 days before the official beginning of the term. GOOD students log in early and begin reading the syllabus, resources, course policies, and many even start on the first week's assignments.

2. Students should always log in to their classes at least 4 times a week to read announcements, new postings in the discussions, check their grades and review feedback, and contribute to the discussions.

3. Students need to review all feedback on graded work. This means studying this feedback, asking questions when clarification is needed, and then implementing these in all new work.

4. Students need a 3-tiered time management system. (1) course calendar and monthly calendar; (2) weekly calendar; (3) daily to-do list.

5. Students need to avoid procrastination and keep ahead of the class due dates. Students who begin class early can stay ahead of the game throughout. It's always better to get work done early than to fall behind and try to play catch-up.

Do you give students assignment choices?

Teaching and learning is all about demonstrating mastery of course goals and outcomes. The best way for students to demonstrate mastery is through an activity chosen and produced by each individual student. We should always provide choices for ways in which students can demonstrate what they have learned.

Students are all different in the way they learn and the way in which they explain concepts to others. When students produce an assignment for assessment, they are, in effect, explaining concepts to their faculty, who, will grade their attempt at demonstrating mastery of the content. It stands to reason, that assessment projects should be different throughout the course.

Faculty complain about grading papers and yet they continue to assign multiple papers in every class. Frankly, I stopped doing that a long time ago. Only in pre-designed classes where I cannot change assignments, do my students write papers. They write a lot in the discussions every week and so they get plenty of writing practice, review, and revision without having to write one or more papers during the class term.

There are many ways to demonstrate mastery that are more effective as well as more interesting to produce and assess. Instead of assigning textbook homework and written essays, try some of these ideas. I guarantee your students will enjoy the diversity and you will find grading much more interesting too.

Are your students too dependent?

When I get a question that has clearly stated answers in the syllabus or lesson or wherever, my response goes something like this -- Please check the (syllabus or lesson or dropbox or course info or assignment checklist or whatever) for information about this. There is detailed information and if you need further clarification after reviewing that, please let me know.
 
Getting lost or clueless or confused is all part of being a new online student. I have no problem answering questions but I won't copy from the course to answer the question. I direct students where to find the information for themselves. This teaches them how to navigate not only my course, but future online courses as well.
 
Students will rise to the level of your expectations. And if they learn I will answer questions they should be able to find for themselves, they'll continue to ask those questions. My goal is to promote self-directed learning, which is essential in online classes. So if the answer to a question is clearly stated and easy to find, they need to figure it out by themselves.
 
Professors who handhold are doing their students a grave disservice by promoting dependence on the course prof to "help" all the time. Simply put, I do not believe in handholding for college students. I believe in teaching self-directed learning skills to all students who are in my classes.

What kinds of handholding behaviors have you seen going on in online classes? How can we teach students to be more self-directed in their learning?